Michael MuchmoreFacebook Groups (for iPhone)The Facebook Groups iPhone app offers a convenient way to join, create, and interact with your work, family, and interest groups, but it lacks some basic capabilities found in the standard Facebook app.

Clean, intuitive interface. Great way to discover new groups. Photo uploading and emoticons. Notifications.

Cons

Lacks member search. No file uploads. Admins can't see who has viewed a post. Can't edit posts.

Bottom Line

The Facebook Groups iPhone app offers a convenient way to join, create, and interact with your work, family, and interest groups, but it lacks some basic capabilities found in the standard Facebook app.

When Facebook's Paper app launched as an alternative and innovative way to consume shared social news items, it represented the birth of Facebook's Creative Labs team, which has a mission to continually release mobile apps relating to various aspects of Facebook. The social network has since released Slingshot, Mentions (only celebs need apply), and Rooms, with varying degrees of success. The team's latest offering is Groups (free), which offers mobile users a way to interact with Facebook's existing Groups feature. Yes, you could already do that in the main Facebook mobile app, but a standalone app means you're more likely to take advantage of both private and public Groups. It gives you a more convenient way to get right to interacting in a smaller, well, group.

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Getting Started With Facebook Groups At 54MB in the iTunes App Store, Facebook Groups is a bit heavier than I'd expect for a single-purpose, media-light app. It's available for both iPhone and Android, but there's no good news for Windows Phone Facebook users yet. It has just about the easiest sign-in possible, if you've already associated your Facebook account with your iPhone (which makes sharing from other apps and built-in features easier). I just had to tap "Continue as Michael Muchmore" to get started.

After a few seconds watching a throbber, a Welcome screen invited me to get started. I then had to choose whether I wanted the app to deliver Instant Updates, i.e., push notifications. These notifications can be enabled per group, so that every group you belong to isn't constantly popping down notifications and ringing.

InterfaceThe Facebook Groups app has a more familiar design than those of previous Creative Labs apps like Paper and Slingshot. It does, however, follow those apps in using a pull-down gesture to refresh group activity and to take you back to the home page when you're inside a group. Circular buttons for each of the Facebook Groups I'd already subscribed to appeared, each showing the number of unread posts. Four icons along the bottom switch you between Groups view, Notifications, Discover, and Settings. The Notifications page is similar to what you get when you tap the globe icon in the Facebook app.

Discover is the most interesting choice, and possibly the one that justifies having a standalone app, since it lets you find and engage with groups you didn't know existed. Discover suggests new groups based on ones you've already joined, those your friends belong to, and your Facebook Page likes. For example, since I liked The New York Times, it proposed the News, Media & Publishing group. My interest in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology prompted a suggestion to follow the ABA Rare Bird Alert group. Joining is a simple matter of a button press, and a Not Interested button will prevent similar suggestions. Another way to find groups of interest is through Search. When you find a group this way, you get more info than on the Discover page's results.

As a refresher, Facebook Groups can be of three kinds: Public, Closed, and Secret. The first two are obvious, but Secret groups are hidden from any public view, so unless people are invited, they won't even know the group exists. When you hit Join for any group type, your status will be Requested, until the group owner approves you.

You can also create the three types of groups from within the app, and it's actually a cuter experience in the app than on the website, with colorful clip art along the way. You first see suggestions for group categories such as teams, family, and travel planning. Then you decide on the group's privacy level. Next you choose members to invite, but unfortunately, you can't search for them.

In the actual group view, you see the cover photo on top, with a row of users' buttons; tapping the latter shows the entire list of members, and again, you can't search within that list. You can add your own friends as members if the group is public, though.

In group view, you can write a post or add a photo, and even tag specific group members and include emoticons, but not Facebook Messenger-style stickers. What you get in the Web version of Facebook, but is missing here, is the ability to upload and download files such as Microsoft Word docs.

After you post something in a group, you get options for copying either its link or text, stopping notifications about activity on it, or deleting it. But you can't edit it, and if you're the admin, you can't see how many people have viewed it, as you can on the website. Post editing is even possible in the standard Facebook app, so it's an odd omission here. Another thing you lose in the app is the ability to pin a post to the top of the group feed, which can be useful for mission statements and the like. Again, the Web and main Facebook app interfaces both allow this action.

An overflow menu, indicated by an ellipsis, on the group page lets you edit group settings, such as name, cover photo, privacy, and so forth. It also lets you add the group to your iPhone's home screen—a nice addition for groups you frequently visit.

A Better Way to Your Groups? The Facebook Groups app for iPhone offers a convenient way to discover, create, and interact with organizations and interest groups on Facebook from a mobile device. Moreover, its design is familiar, clean, and intuitive, while still adding some new-style gestures. But I'm disappointed that it's missing some capabilities already found in the standard Facebook app and the desktop version of the social network.

Facebook Groups (for iPhone)

Bottom Line: The Facebook Groups iPhone app offers a convenient way to join, create, and interact with your work, family, and interest groups, but it lacks some basic capabilities found in the standard Facebook app.

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About the Author

Michael Muchmore is PC Magazine's lead analyst for software and web applications. A native New Yorker, he has at various times headed up PC Magazine's coverage of Web development, enterprise software, and display technologies. Michael cowrote one of the first overviews of web services for a general audience. Before that he worked on PC Magazine's S... See Full Bio

Facebook Groups (for iPhone)

Facebook Groups (for iPhone)

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